Through the first nine games of UConn’s young season, much has been made about Kevin Ollie’s use of the bench. Against the team’s four cupcake opponents — Maine, New Hampshire, Furman and Sacred Heart — the reserves played an average of 76.5 of the available 200 minutes. And it made sense. After all, Ollie was breaking in a few freshmen, trying to find time for veterans, and experimenting with a bevy of possible lineups in low-risk situations.
The problems arose when UConn faced stiffer competition and was unable to take advantage of their early season experimentation. As you would expect, bench contributions dropped dramatically in the team’s three losses — down to about 53 minutes per game. Jalen Adams and Kentan Facey were the main recipients, accounting for about two-thirds of the bench’s minutes against Syracuse, Gonzaga and Maryland. However, each proved inconsistent, which was a tough break for the Huskies since several starters were struggling as well.
The cumulative result before Saturday was a mixed bag. The Huskies had depth but hadn’t figured out how best to utilize it.
Then came Ohio State.
UConn’s blowout win of their Big 10 opponent on Saturday showed a clear path for how Ollie should manage his rotation going forward. Each starter got significant minutes, Daniel Hamilton was the low man at 25. The bench was shortened to include only Facey (in the first half), Adams and Omar Calhoun. And Ollie rode the hot hand by weaving Calhoun (14 points on 5-5 shooting in 26 minutes) and Adams (11 points, four rebounds, four assists in 29 minutes) into the game without impeding the Huskies’ momentum or stapling one of his starters to the bench.
As a general rule, Ollie should stick with his starters and Adams for as long as possible. A fun byproduct of Ollie’s “positionless” roster is that Adams can replace any of the five starters depending on need, fatigue and strategy. Adams has shown enough over the team’s first nine games to earn 25-30 minutes each night. Especially as Sterling Gibbs struggles with his shot, it will be crucial to get Adams accustomed to running with the first team as much as possible.
Facey’s contribution should be to relieve Shonn Miller and Amida Brimah when they need a rest or are hit with foul trouble. Facey is a savant rebounder — the team leader in total rebound percentage and fourth on the team with 4.1 boards per game — but doesn’t offer enough scoring to make a big difference if the offense is struggling with Miller on the floor. Facey is averaging about 13 minutes per game and that feels about right but could go even higher depending on the opponent.
Ideally, that leaves about 15-20 bench minutes available to try to find a hot hand. On Saturday, that was Omar Calhoun (who ended up poaching some of Hamilton’s minutes). A sustained hot streak from Calhoun would pose a pretty fun problem for Ollie, and he should get some early burn in UConn’s next game (Sunday against UMass-Lowell). But a more realistic assumption is that he will run hot and cold, contributing heavily at times, and not at all at others.
The same can be said about all of the remaining bench players. Each offers a chance for a good game, but Ollie will have to tightly manage their minutes to keep only the most effective reserves on the court, and only at appropriate times.
On Saturday, he did just that. Over the next few weeks, we’ll see if the rotation begins to expand again, or if UConn has found the formula that works.
